Trait Theory 1 PDF

PS338:Theories of Personality Dr Jenny Groarke Trait Theory 1 University ofGalway.ie How would you describe your personality? Who are we? Humans like to categorize... A gaggle of geese, a superfluity of nuns, an embarrassment...

PS338:Theories of Personality Dr Jenny Groarke Trait Theory 1 University ofGalway.ie How would you describe your personality? Who are we? Humans like to categorize... A gaggle of geese, a superfluity of nuns, an embarrassment of pandas Species, ethnic groups Staff, student Academic, musician  Throughout History Jung ‘Extraversion Freud Introversion ‘the unconscious’ (1930s) Galton (1920s) 'Lexical Gall + Phineas Hypothesis' Cage (1880s) Hippocrates + Neurological basis Plato (18 + 19th ‘4 Humors’ century) (Circa 380 BC)  Throughout History Costa & McCrae – Eysenck – PEN BIG 5 theory Cattell – Factor (1990s) (1947) analysis Allport - (1940) identified first set of traits (1936) Key definition Personality traits are: ‘consistent patterns in the way individuals behave, feel, and think’ (Pervin & Cervine, 2010) Consistency is the key – beyond time and place  Personality traits are: consistent patterns in the way individuals behave, feel, and think (Pervin & Cervine, 2010) Traits assume that people differ along continuous variables or dimensions People differ in the amounts of characteristics they have in their personality  Traits are Continuous = Everyone has some degree of a trait The Trait People can be higher or lower on a specific approach trait, but cannot lack a trait altogether Aims of trait theory DESCRIPTIVE PREDICTIVE EXPLANATORY Approaches Nomothetic – looks at similarities across people/in groups (broad) Idiographic – looks at unique attributes of individuals (narrow) The Trait Approach “Every man is in certain respects (a) like all other men, (b) like some other men, (c) like no other man” (Kluckhohn & Murray, 1961, p. 53, as cited on p. 112). The trait approach focuses on the second level. Traits are the building blocks of personality. What Traits Are and Are Not Not total determinants of behavior Characterizes average behavior across time and situations Can be used to predict behavior and important life outcomes  Don’t presume to explain every single aspect of human nature – just some key, important patterns What traits are not! A criticism often aimed at trait theory – too reductionist Key Theorists: 1. Gordon Allport 2. Raymond Cattell [16PF] 3. Hans Eysenck [3 PEN] 4. Paul Costa & Robert McCrae [big 5] 15 Gordon Allport (1897-1967) Father of modern personality theory Born in Indiana Shy, introverted child – birth defect BA in Philosophy and Economics, PhD Psych, Harvard Brother in social psychology (Floyd Allport) Allport meeting with Freud Young student, just out of college Freud tried to ‘analyze’ him when they met Story about little boy on train https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=bxtY7YP1cpA ‘And was that little boy you?’ Allport and Freud ‘Flabbergasted and feeling a bit guilty, I contrived to change the subject. While Freud’s misunderstanding of my motivation was amusing, it also started a deep train of thought. I realized that he was accustomed to neurotic defenses, and that my manifest motivation (a sort of rude curiosity and youthful ambition) escaped him... this experience taught me that depth psychology, for all its merits, may plunge too deep, and that Psychologists would do well to give full recognition to manifest motives before probing the unconscious’ (Allport, 1967) In other words... ‘Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar’ (attributed to Freud) Focused on positive, healthy parts of human nature Psychoanalytic view was quite Allport: negative and impulsive in Allport’s opinion Humanistic psychologist? Wanted to see the other side of people’s motive’s  refers to the most important personality characteristics as having become encoded in natural language (e.g. Allport, 1937) Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911) applied the Lexical use of the lexical hypothesis to personality for the first time hypothesis 17,000 personality trait terms in English language  Scoured dictionary (4,000 descriptive traits) Allport: 3 main types: Cardinal, Central, and Approach Secondary  Very obvious – seen to affect all aspect of person’s life Overall ‘drive’ Cardinal traits E.g. The power-hungry, driven narcissist, ‘Machiavellian’ , ‘Christ-like’ Rare, and develops later on in life  Narrower than cardinal Central traits Common, foundations of personality E.g., honesty, assertiveness, anxiousness  Least obvious Less general and consistent; situational Secondary Same secondary trait might be quite traits different across different people; related to attitudes and preferences E.g., experiencing anxiety while speaking publicly (even if confident person) Importance of context and individuality People are not ‘machines’ – behaving same way all the time Allport recognized importance of traits, but also importance of situations (work of Walter Mischel) We can modify our behaviour according to situation Evaluation of Allport Major contributions, crucial figure in psychology of personality Mainly descriptive (e.g., believed traits inherited, but no actual research on this) No in-depth look at traits and psychological processes behind them Leaning towards idiographic approach criticized (Freud also favoured idiographic approach) but also nomothetic Raymond B. Cattell (1905-1998) Physics and chemistry in university (BSc at 19) Worked with Thorndike (Columbia), Allport (Harvard), and Spearman (UCL) Cattell: Approach Whittled down Allport’s 4,000 descriptions of personality Factor Analysis - Statistical technique used to make sense/group large amounts of data (looks for common threads, correlations among variables) Personality structure Surface traits – literally on the surface, observable via behaviour (identified 4,500 in total) Source traits – deeper, underlying trait clusters, cause of surface traits identified 16 source traits, with 3 categories: ability traits, temperament traits, dynamic traits  Ability traits: skills and abilities, functional Source trait Temperament traits: emotional, broad relating to particular styles of behaviour categories Dynamic traits: related to motivation and striving in a person  L-Data: life history data (e.g., school performance, peer interactions) Sources of Q-Data: questionnaire data (self- Cattell’s data? report) OT-Data: objective test data (observing people in ‘mini situations’ or scenarios) 16PF  Published by Pearson (5th ed – 2002). 16PF First edition published in 1949 popularity and Treatment planning, couples’ counselling, vocational guidance, hiring and promotion applications recommendations  First to use factor analysis (re. personality) – applied order to large body of data Looked at stability of data across Cattell cultures, different age groups evaluation Saw importance of social roles – sometimes override personality Importance of context (state) – fatigue, anxiety, depression  Too many factors (16) to be practical? Cattell Not a parsimonious theory, but very comprehensive evaluation Controversy 1997 – APA withdrew plans for lifetime achievement award (partly Cattell’s request) Controversial views on race and eugenics (racism as ‘evolutionary force’). Denied by Cattell: http://www.cattell.net/devon/openletter.htm Hans J. Eysenck (1916-1997) Enrolled in physics course (Berlin Uni) Studied French, literature, history in France Enrolled at UL – wanted to study physics and astronomy PhD at 24 (University College London) – aesthetics Prof at Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College (Maudsley Hospital)  ‘The psychologist they most love to hate’ (New Scientist) ‘One of the most distinguished, prolific and maddeningly perverse psychologists of his generation...’ (New York Times Obituary) “[Eysenck] led the way in defining the structure of human personality'’ - Prof. Frank Farley (former President of the APA) Prolific 80 books 1000+ articles Controversial research  Based on factor analysis Eysenck’s theory of personality Fewer traits better (e.g., Cattell – overkill with 16?)  Factor analysis (different method from Cattell’s) PEN Theory: The ‘Great Three’ Three main traits: Psychoticism, Extraversion, Neuroticism (PEN) Extraversion (1947) Related to Jung’s extraversion-introversion typology Extraversion ------------------------→ Introversion Talkative Quiet Assertive Reserved Active Shy Energetic Silent Neuroticism (1947) Neuroticism ----------------→ Emotional stability Tense Stable Anxious Calm Nervous Contented Moody Relaxed  Psychoticism (1952) Psychoticism -------------------→ Impulse control Aggressive Empathetic Tough-minded Deliberate Anti-social Disciplined Impulsive Soft-hearted The biological basis of personality “Genes pull us one way, environment another; we can discern the major directions, but it is hard to explain each detail” (Eysenck, 1990) Twin studies Experimental research  Major contributions to numerous areas in Psychology, including intro. of behaviour therapy Extensive research to support ideas Eysenck Development of scales – translated into many evaluation different languages Highly controversial in some areas Robert McCrae and Paul Costa Both McCrae and Costa based at National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health (Baltimore, Maryland) Little known about personal backgrounds McCrae and Costa: Approach The intersection of lexical and psychometric traditions. Lexical hypothesis - the most important personality characteristics as having become encoded in natural language (e.g. Allport, 1937) Psychometric traditions – Personality traits being captured by psychometric data (e.g. questionnaires) Work initially yielded two factors widely supported as factors of human personality (neuroticism and extraversion; Eysenck & Eysenck, 1964) Further factor emerged from Raymond Cattell’s factors (e.g. experimenting, imaginative), later termed openness to experience  Tupes and Christal (1961) – the first to identify 5 key traits (Surgency, Dependability, Agreeableness, Emotional Stability, Culture) The Big 5 Norman (1963) and Borgatta (1964) had same findings The Big 5 Inventory Take the test: Personality The five factor model of personality (FFM). The BIG FIVE: Memory aid: OCEAN Openness to experience: a tendency to enjoy new intellectual experiences and ideas Conscientiousness: a tendency to show self-discipline, act dutiful, and aim for achievement and competence Extraversion: a tendency to seek stimulation and the company of others Agreeableness: a tendency to be compassionate rather than antagonistic about others Neuroticism: a tendency to easily experience unpleasant emotions The ‘Big Five’ OCEAN O = Openness to experience C = Conscientiousness E = Extraversion A = Agreeableness N = Neuroticism Content of measures/ how traits are expressed Neuroticism focuses on affect Conscientiousness deal with behaviour and some cognition Openness mostly reflected in cognition (some affect and behaviour overtones) Extraversion: blend behaviour and affect (not much on thoughts) Agreeableness reflects all 3 areas of cognition, affect and behaviours  Short version available (NEO-FFI) McCrae and Costa evaluation Described a ‘happy medium’ of traits – Eysenck too few? Cattell too many? Much work on cross-cultural stability and temporal stability of traits Previous research had also identified the 5 traits Trait theory: Some applications Personality questionnaires (e.g., EPQ, NEO-PI, 16-PF) widely used – in research, clinical settings, personnel selection/screening Discuss Describe your Big 5 test results in pairs/small groups How accurate are the results (in your opinion)? If someone was to meet you for a short amount of time – would they reach the same conclusions? If I wanted to know you – would the test results be sufficient? What is missing?  Not theory driven – data driven Trait theory Different methods of factor analysis used – no consensus evaluation (overall) Cannot explain all of human nature  Reliance on self-report (but many include lie scales) Stability and change Trait theory Cross-culturally reliable evaluation Explanation of thoughts, (overall) behaviours, feelings  Useful – descriptive and comprehensive Trait theory An objective approach (other evaluation theories quite subjective) (overall) Predictive of some (but not all) important behaviours